A screen printing machine is designed in such a manner that a paste such as a solder paste or a conductive paste is supplied onto an upper surface of a mask plate (paste supply target) in which a plurality of pattern holes corresponding to an arrangement of electrodes on a substrate are formed by a paste supply syringe, and a squeegee having a lower end brought into contact with the upper surface of the mask plate reciprocates to slide on the mask plate with the results that the pattern holes are filled with the paste to transfer the paste onto the electrodes of the substrate brought into contact with the lower surface of the mask plate. Also, in recent years, from the viewpoints of simplifying the mechanism and accelerating a paste replenishing operation into the paste supply syringe, a configuration in which the paste supply syringe and the squeegee are fitted to the same member so as to be movable integrally has been used.
In the screen printing machine of this type, in order to improve the workability of squeegee replacement attributable to a change in the type of substrate, there has been proposed a mechanism in which the paste supply syringe is changed from a paste supply posture in which a paste discharge port of the paste supply syringe is directed downward is changed to a storage posture in which the paste discharge port is directed in a horizontal direction, and the paste supply syringe is stored in a position where the replacement operation of the squeegee is not blocked.
Specifically, a travel mechanism that rotatably attaches the paste supply syringe, and travels the paste supply syringe in the horizontal direction, and a guide member having a curved guide surface in an upper surface thereof on a travel path of the paste supply syringe are provided, and in a process of traveling the paste supply syringe by the travel mechanism, a cam follower disposed in the paste supply syringe is abutted against the guide surface, and the paste supply syringe is rotated along the guide surface through the cam follower, to thereby translate the paste supply syringe from the paste supply posture into the storage position. According to this configuration, the paste supply syringe is translated into the storage posture and stored, thereby being capable of ensuring the replacement operation space of the squeegee, as a result of which the replacement operation of the squeegee can be facilitated.